The present invention relates to a truck mounted apparatus for hoisting cargo onto the cargo area of the truck.
Personal motorized recreational vehicles such as motorbikes, snowmobiles and personal watercraft are becoming increasingly popular. There are however few convenient systems to transport such vehicles from place to place. They may be transported in the bed of a pickup truck, however, usually there is only room for one such vehicle and there is no convenient way to lift the vehicle into the truck bed. Snowmobiles have been transported side by side on a deck which is built on top of a pickup truck box, however, getting them onto the deck involves carrying and providing ramps. Accidents involving users driving off the ramp during loading and unloading are not uncommon. As well, a deck wide enough for two vehicles to be side by side will extend significantly wider than the width of the pickup truck.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system for loading and unloading cargo from a truck bed which mitigates the limitations of the prior art.
In general terms, the invention comprises a truck-mounted apparatus for hoisting cargo onto the cargo area of a truck and for lowering the cargo to the ground. In one aspect of the invention, the apparatus comprises:
a) a support frame mounted to the truck and having at least one load-bearing surface;
b) a lever arm having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is pivotally mounted to the support frame or the truck and said lever arm is pivotally moveable from a first position to a second position;
c) a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder and piston rod contained within the support frame which is pivotally mounted to the support frame or the truck at one end and pivotally connected to the lever arm at the other end, wherein the rod may extend or retract into the cylinder and further wherein extension of the rod causes the lever arm to move from its first position to its second position;
d) a power supply for driving the cylinder and piston rod and a controller connected to the power supply for controlling the power supply;
f) a cargo carrier comprising a cargo bed and a rigidly connected link arm wherein said link arm is pivotally connected to the second end of the lever arm;
wherein the cargo carrier rests on the support frame when the cylinder rod is retracted and lever arm is in the first position and rests substantially on the ground when the cylinder rod is extended and the lever arm is in the second position.
The lever arm is comprised of a pivot head, a lever rod portion and an extender portion wherein the pivot head comprises a primary pivot point where the pivot head engages the support frame, a rod pivot point where the cylinder rod engages the pivot head and a neck portion having a lever arm axis, the lever rod portion extends from the neck portion along the lever arm axis and the extender portion extends substantially vertically from the lever rod portion when the lever arm is in the first position.
In one embodiment, a line which is parallel to the lever arm axis in the vertical plane and which passes through the primary pivot point and the rod pivot point is offset from and substantially parallel to the lever arm axis.
In another embodiment, the primary pivot point, the rod pivot point and a point at the commencement of neck portion form a triangle when viewed from the side.